The Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is riveted by bitter fighting between the government army and the rebels forces. The United Nations ‘ troops are monitoring the situation, protecting the populations and intervening militarily in case of dangerous developments. The declaration over ceasefire made by the rebels’ leader, Laurent Nkunda, seemed to be unconvincing due to the tension remaining in the ground, threatening to renew again the war between protagonists.

Unfortunately, fightings have erupted again accompanied by horrible scenes of massacres and klllings leaving many dead among civilian populations. This region is still in danger of violence and killings of innocent population forcing them to flee the zone of conflicts without food, water or any minimum facilities necessary to cope with the situation of displacement, thus worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the confrontations.

Concerns are also growing due to the fact that Rwanda is accused of being involved in these confrontations, the rebel troops allegedly backed by Rwanda, are well-trained, well-equipped militarily compared with the Congolese government ones. Other reason of concerns also consists the nature of the battle ground of North Kivu, a zone extremely rich in mineral and natural resources systematically coveted locally , regionally, even internationally.

All that has led to grave humiliation and sufferings of the Congolese people who are forced to bear the brunt of the war. The failure to bring peace and stability to the conflict-driven region is utterly disappointing.

The dangerous developments of the conflict into a position of confrontations between Tutsi and Hutu populations should be avoided by all means possible. Any agreement aimed at trying to settle peacefully the situation should be much exploited to be brought to concretisation and should be binding.

The Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation considers that more assistance as well as pressure from the international community is needed to get the Congolese government and the rebels into negotiations since military operations will lead to nowhere. AAPSO appeals all protagonists to show determination and political will in dealing this issue.

November 7, 2008 — Despite Western media and politicians having largely
ignored a decade of genocidal warfare that has cost 6 million lives, the
recent upsurge in fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) has drawn not only media attention, but visits to the region
by the British and French foreign ministers and United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The current round of fighting in North
Kivu province, which began on October 26 with an offensive by the
Rwandan-backed rebel forces of General Laurent Nkunda, is indeed a
humanitarian catastrophe — 200,000 people have been displaced, many not
for the first time.